Psyche A Williams-Forson

Dr. Psyche Williams-Forson is an award-winning scholar and thought leader in Black food studies, widely recognized both nationally and internationally for her groundbreaking research at the intersections of food, race, gender, and power. She is the author of the acclaimed Eating While Black: Food Shaming and Race in America—winner of the prestigious 2023 James Beard Media Award—and the prizewinning Building Houses out of Chicken Legs: Black Women, Food, and Power, honored by the American Folklore Society. She also co-edited Taking Food Public: Redefining Food in a Changing World, a foundational text in food studies.

Dr. Williams-Forson’s work provides essential insight into African and African American cultural contributions to Southern foodways and identity. Her scholarship is frequently cited for its innovation and accessibility, and her expertise has been featured in mainstream media, including Al Roker’s Family Style (NBC Today), Netflix’s Ugly Delicious, and the documentary The Invisible Vegan.

A distinguished academic leader, Dr. Williams-Forson served as Chair of the Department of American Studies from 2015 to 2025—becoming the first Black woman to hold this position. She is the Principal Investigator for Breaking the M.O.L.D. (Mellon/Maryland Opportunities for Leadership Development), a transformative initiative funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to expand leadership pathways for women and BIPOC scholars in the arts and humanities.

She holds affiliate appointments in Theatre, Dance, and Performing Studies; African American Studies; Anthropology; The Harriet Tubman Department of Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies; and the Consortium on Race, Gender, and Ethnicity.

For more on her public-facing research and media contributions, visit psychewilliamsforson.com.

Select Publications:

• Eating While Black: Food Shaming and Race in America UNC Press, 2022 - 2023 James Beard Foundation Award Winner - Food Issues and Advocacy
• Taking Food Public: Redefining Foodways in a Changing World. Routledge, 2013.
• Building Houses Out of Chicken Legs: Black Women, Food, and Power. UNC Press, 2006.
• “Finding the Hidden Potential in Workplace Eating.” THRUUE. 2021.
• “In ‘Trouble’ with(out) Culture: Food Shaming and African American Foodways.” Spectra (Magazine of the National Communication Association). September 2019. 20 – 25.
• “Food as Hieroglyphics: Amiri Baraka and Black Expressive Culture.” Journal of American Studies of Turkey. 51 (2019): 43-48.
• “Black Lives Matter, Even in Food Justice.” Food, Fatness, Fitness Blog. http://foodfatnessfitness.com/author/psyche-williams-forson/ - Germany: Erfurt University. 2016.
• “ ‘I Haven’t Eaten If I Don’t Have My Soup and Fufu’”: Cultural Preservation through Food and Foodways among Ghanaian Migrants in the United States.” Africa Today 61.1 (2014): 69-87
• Focus Essay - “Who’s in the Kitchen with Dinah? Intersectionality and Food Studies.” Food, Culture, and Society 14.1 (March 2011): 7-16.